Starting next week, state officials will roll out a new program they say should result in faster and cheaper tests that will help reduce auto emissions in California.

First, cars targeted as likely gross polluters will be routed to specially certified smog check stations that will be subject to stricter oversight by the state.

Then, sometime next year, cars model year 2000 or newer will no longer have their tailpipe emissions tested on treadmill-like machines known as dynamometers. Instead, technicians will plug into the vehicles' on-board computers to find out how well the cars perform when they're actually on the road.

The new plan, known as STAR, replaces the state's Gold Shield program.

The need for change is clear, officials say. A 2009 audit found that 19 percent of cars that initially passed a smog check ended up failing a roadside inspection within a year.

"We want to make sure the people testing those vehicles are doing a good job of it," said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs, which includes the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

The software needed to monitor diagnostic computers will prove cheaper than the dynamometers, Heimerich said. That, in turn, should bring down the price drivers pay for the every-other-year tests.

For smog shop owners, the program is probably a mixed bag, said Steve Griffen, owner of Country Club Smog in Stockton.

Griffen is skeptical that the cost will come down much - if at all.

"My rents are not going to drop, and what I pay my people is not going to drop," Griffen said. "We have no intention of lowering our prices."

He said he does expect the tests to be quicker.

San Francisco attorney William Ferreira, who specializes in automotive cases, filed a lawsuit earlier this year attempting to block the program on behalf of a Southern California smog shop.

Many stations will be unable to qualify to meet the new, stricter standards required by the state to test older and dirtier cars, Ferreira said. That could effectively force them out of business.

Some of those standards are not within the control of smog-test-business owners, he said. For instance, whether cars remain in compliance after passing a smog check depends on many factors, such as the number of miles drivers put on those cars and whether they are properly maintained.

In the end there will be fewer smog stations, Ferreira said, which could actually drive up prices and increase wait times - precisely the opposite of what the state has predicted.

"There may not be a certified facility within 10 or 15 miles of your home," he said. "Driving across town, long waits and long lines - it really is that drastic."

The Bureau of Automotive Repair and the California Air Resources Board sponsored 2010 legislation to revamp the smog check program, a "major upgrade" in technology that would have the same effect as removing 800,000 old cars off the road.

To learn more about the new smog check program visit smogcheck.ca.gov.